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- Many people set goals at the beginning of a new year.
- However, these goals are often not achieved
- Researchers explain that success lies in the way we express our resolutions
Whether it’s losing weight or starting a new hobby, we’re all familiar with setting ambitious goals for the new year, only to find ourselves a few months later having accomplished nothing.
Fortunately, according to a recent study, it is quite easy to increase the chances of successfully achieving your New Year’s resolutions.
The secret of success
The secret to success lies in the way you formulate your resolution, according to the researchers.
This conclusion was reached after conducting a large-scale experiment with 1,066 participants from the general public.
“We investigated what resolutions people make when they are free to formulate them, whether different resolutions achieve different success rates, and whether it is possible to increase the probability of a resolution’s success,” the researchers explained.
After formulating their resolutions, the participants were divided into three groups based on the amount of support they received during the year: one group received no support, the other only had some support, and the third group received extended support.
Popular resolutions
Scientists found that some of the most popular resolutions involved physical health, weight loss, and eating habits.
Study co-author Professor Per Carlbring said: “It was found that the support given to the participants did not make a big difference in terms of how well the participants held their resolutions throughout the year. What surprised us were the results on how to express their resolve. ”
The findings indicate that participants were more successful when they expressed their resolve beginning with “I will start” than when they expressed it “I will quit / avoid”.
This means that the participants were less successful in what the researchers describe as avoidance-oriented goals (quitting smoking or staying away from something), and more successful in setting focus-oriented goals (adopting a new habit).
Is it really as easy as changing the way you express your resolve?
According to Professor Carlbring, “In many cases, rephrasing your resolution could definitely work. For example, if your goal is to stop eating sweets to lose weight, you will most likely be more successful if you say “I will eat fruit several times a day.”
“Then you replace the candy with something healthier, which probably means you’ll lose weight and also maintain your resolve. You can’t erase a behavior, but you can replace it with something else.”
READ | Tips to keep your New Year’s resolutions
READ | New Years Resolutions Weren’t Kept? Try a reboot on Monday
READ | Some Solid Tips on New Years Resolutions You Could Stick to
